After climbing Dragontail last spring break, I had to return for Colchuck this year. I had big plans of climbing multiple peaks, but knee/waist deep powder snow and a sore ankle added a lot to the travel time. I only beat the weather on the summit by a half an hour. What a beautiful place. I can't wait until next year.

the area was completely in clouds when I came here two weeks ago.
On Jun22 I drove in the night before and started at 5AM from the Stuart Lake trailhead. I went up to Colchuck Col by the Colchuck glacier route. Views were very impressive, truly 'enchanting'. I had a great day overall. hardest part was the drive back to Redmond but managed to be back without events :(

After being weathered out on Rainier we decided to use our last day in Washington to try Colchuck, hoping that the weather would be better on a smaller peak. It wasn't. It poured rain on us all day. The glacier was melted down to bare ice on the steep part and had running water over the top from all the rain and melting snow. Shrund at the top of glacier was big but still passable on the climbers left.

Beautiful area!!! Enjoyed nearly perfect weather and spent about an hour at the top relaxing and taking in the views. Dragontail was beckoning, but not everyone in the group felt strong enough to tag both summits in a day, so it will have to wait until another day.

A wonderful climb on a beautiful day. Our group could see Baker and Ranier from the summit. Absolutely incredible views. Long and steep at the end, but well worth it- A very fast glissade down the glacier. Oh yah... and I climbed it in a dress :)

The road (mountaineers creek) up to the Trail Head is still gated so we had to huff and puff up the road 4 miles just to get to the Stuart Lake TH. What a pain!

Spent a beautiful cloudless night (bivy) at the stuart lake/colchuck lake junction. Off at 4am. Recent snowfall made for interesting climbing. We were the only ones on the route so we had to break trail the entire way. Made the summit at 11am after little trouble on the summit pyramid. Descent via Colchuck Glacier and back to our camp where we packed up and started our long slog back out to the car.

Conditions were not as good as last weekend. Lots of fresh snow all the way up and down. There was another guy who was soloing (apart from me) and a third team of two on the route. The other solo guy was too fast - he started from the trailhead at about 5:00 am and overtook us (the team of two and I were taking turns breaking trail) at about 8:00 am and never looked back! So, he broke trail and at the same time beat the three of us by almost an hour! Thanks dude!!

I used two tools (had two or three places where I had to climb small steps of vertical rock/ice), and the team of two actually carried rope and pro, but never used them (mainly because of all the fresh snow - we would've just sunk in it if we fell).

It was cloudy and started snowing when we were near the top, but luckily, the weather did not get worse. Overall, a good climb that took more strength than technique!

Awesome conditions and an awesome group of people to climb with! Was great to meet with Brian Jenkins and Chris W. As Brian mentioned (in his pictures too), it was an easy plod up and down. We met at least three parties who had done the North Buttress Couloir on Saturday (Apr 9). Apparently, the NBC is in great shape.

My buddy Chris and I hiked in late Saturday evening arriving at the lake about 9 pm and meeting up with Peter, Magnus, Eileen and Bala. Actually, we were lucky they noticed us noisily clambering by their tents as they tried to sleep. Bivied with them and headed up about 6:30 the next morning across the frozen lake. A little over 3 hours later and we were on the summit after climbing up the glacier and heading right from the col. Snow was kind of sugary under a couple inches of slab which made for some loose footing. Had amazingly great weather in spite of the forecast and a great time with a cool group of people. Only wished I did not have to get back to Portland this night as I missed out on beers in Leavenworth.